Krithika Shankarraman
Stories Sell Better Than Stats
Inspired by Krithika Shankarraman episode
Krithika from OpenAI knows that marketing isn't clicks and impressions. It's creating connection through storytelling.
At OpenAI, ChatGPT had massive awareness but people didn't know what to use it for. Marketing became creating "use case epiphany" moments—that instant where someone goes "oh SHIT, I didn't know ChatGPT could do that." Not vanity metrics. Real stories that clicked.
Your toddler hits someone, and you can pull out the research. "Studies show that aggression in early childhood correlates with..." They're three. They're picking their nose. They don't care about your longitudinal study.
Or you can say: "Remember when you fell off the slide? That's how it feels."
Boom. Connection.
Numbers inform. Stories stick. The best marketing artifacts, like the best parenting moments, meet people exactly where they are and show them something they didn't know was possible. Even if what's possible is just not hitting your sister for five consecutive minutes.
